A "journey" involving running in place in the deep end. Quite possibly I've gone off the deep end.

Friday, May 20, 2011

My return to running -- one example of a schedule

I've spent a lot of time on various running fora discussing injuries, and while the most popular topic is generally diagnosis (we love to self-diagose), a secondary topic is how to return to running post injury.

In the past, I've returned pretty aggressively - in approximately 8 weeks I'd have returned to my high mileage ways. At the time, I thought this was good -- heck, setting PRs in your first races back from injury has to be a good thing, right? But I'd only be running for about 2-3 months before another injury would hit. It was never the same injury twice, and so I thought it was just my bad luck.

I've since realized that when you take time off, your body loses a lot of its ability to sustain the trauma of running. Your hard-earned durability erodes, and you can't really jump back to where you were. You need to think of yourself as a new runner, and rebuild accordingly -- almost like the couch-to-5K.

And so, this time, with guidance, coaching, and coaxing supplemented by acidic common sense, I came back very carefully. It was frustrating at times, but in the end I managed to come back without rebreaking the foot. My goal was to come back without reinjury, and I accomplished it.

When I was injured, I was constantly searching for the blogs of others who had broken a foot and then returned to running, to get some feel for the appropriate progression. For all of you now in the same boat, here's how I did it. Below, I've mapped out the first 14 weeks of my return (days that I actually ran are italicized). I did my first tempo workout 7 weeks after being cleared to run and my first interval workout and race 12 weeks after being cleared. I waited 11 weeks before cautiously running back to back two days in a row (I still only run 4 days a week, with Tuesday and Wednesday being back to back). And it wasn't until 14 weeks back that I began to do my post-workout cool-down on the track.

This is obviously a very lengthy post, but hopefully it will be of use to others.

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Preface: 6 weeks in a boot doing nothing but pool running, pilates (with feet not touching anything, and upperbody strengthwork. Forecast at the time of injury was for 6 weeks no weight-bearing exercise, then 6 more weeks of biking+elliptical, before running. Week 0 is a half-week, starting on a Wednesday when I took the boot off for the last time and started testing the elliptical, yoga, etc.

Week 0 (walking around in a shoe. Also doing all sorts of foot/calf strengthening exercises)

I stopped this reprise at the first time I did a cool-down jog on the track, post workout. It's at that point that I think I reached my personal variant of normal, and could be considered to have "returned", even if I wasn't yet fully fit.

I stalked your log when I was coming back to get an idea of what was safe. I came back even slower, but I was never running your kind of mileage to begin with.this post will definitely be helpful for others, and I am s glad you are injury free!

Hi again. I was able to buy an exogen bone growth stimulator off of ebay. I will get it tomorrow (p.o. not open today - veteran's day). I am going into my 5th week, I suppose it's never too late to start. did you use yours from day one? I go back to podiatrist this week and I guess will get an xray. did you dr. take an xray to tell you that your fracture was healing? from you blog, it said you healed by7 weeks - I doubt that will happen to me so I am not sure what I am looking at in terms of starting to weight bear. the boot is just so awkward. swimming laps without touching the wall is starting to get to me!!! I appreciate your blog and I am going to try to use your comeback schedule as a guide. thanks for posting. I only hope the xray shows some callus formation. thanks for any advice

Full slew of race reports here (from my first in June 2007 to 2010) and here (2011).

workouts

(you can click on the link to see the details)

Pool running conversion

I convert my pool-running into “mileage” with this formula:

1)10 minutes “easy” in the pool equals one mile

2)workouts translate by time into mileage, with the recoveries not counting for mileage.For example, I would normally cover half a mile in 3:00 during an interval workout, and 1.5 miles in 10:00 during a tempo.So 8x3:00 at interval effort is 4 miles, and 10 minutes at tempo effort is 1.5 miles.